Carrefour: Case Study
Background& History
Carrefour is a French multinational retailer whose headquarter is located in France. Due to successful store models, it has become one of the largest supermarket chains in the world (Carrefour Group, 2012) and considered to be the second largest retail group after Wal-Mart (Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, 2013). Carrefour operates their stores all over the world, especially in three major markets: Asian, Europe and Latin America (As figure 1 shown).
Alexandre (2000) said “Carrefour’s first hypermarket was established at the intersection of five roads”. This means “crossroads”, so it has name “Carrefour”. What’s more, it provides kinds of products like foods, clothing as well as some services to customers such as ATM banking.
Figure 1 Carrefour Fiscal Year Ended December 2012
Source: Carrefour Annual Report, 2012
In 1959, Carrefour was firstly established in France by the Fournier and Defforey families, which had achieved a great success at that time (Krishna et.al, 2007). At the same time in Annecy, it opened its first supermarket. Four years later, Carrefour introduced an innovative retail form called “the hypermarket” (Yue, 2007). It opened first hypermarket in France. This store offered kinds of goods, including grocery food, clothing, and electronic goods and so on. After negotiation with wholesalers and suppliers, it offered a relatively low price compared to its competitors. This new concept was especially highly accepted by young people. After six years, it started international expansion into Belgium with opening an outlet (Lene, 2012). Carrefour already had 16 wholly owned stores by 1971. In 1978, Carrefour opened a hard discount store under the banner ED in France (Vinit, 2013). Though it had limited kinds of goods, it offered at a low price. In the 1990s, Carrefour began to put their company into internationalization and opened new stores all over the world. Early in the 1990s, Carrefour focused
Carrefour is a French multinational retailer whose headquarter is located in France. Due to successful store models, it has become one of the largest supermarket chains in the world (Carrefour Group, 2012) and considered to be the second largest retail group after Wal-Mart (Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, 2013). Carrefour operates their stores all over the world, especially in three major markets: Asian, Europe and Latin America (As figure 1 shown).
Alexandre (2000) said “Carrefour’s first hypermarket was established at the intersection of five roads”. This means “crossroads”, so it has name “Carrefour”. What’s more, it provides kinds of products like foods, clothing as well as some services to customers such as ATM banking.
Figure 1 Carrefour Fiscal Year Ended December 2012
Source: Carrefour Annual Report, 2012
In 1959, Carrefour was firstly established in France by the Fournier and Defforey families, which had achieved a great success at that time (Krishna et.al, 2007). At the same time in Annecy, it opened its first supermarket. Four years later, Carrefour introduced an innovative retail form called “the hypermarket” (Yue, 2007). It opened first hypermarket in France. This store offered kinds of goods, including grocery food, clothing, and electronic goods and so on. After negotiation with wholesalers and suppliers, it offered a relatively low price compared to its competitors. This new concept was especially highly accepted by young people. After six years, it started international expansion into Belgium with opening an outlet (Lene, 2012). Carrefour already had 16 wholly owned stores by 1971. In 1978, Carrefour opened a hard discount store under the banner ED in France (Vinit, 2013). Though it had limited kinds of goods, it offered at a low price. In the 1990s, Carrefour began to put their company into internationalization and opened new stores all over the world. Early in the 1990s, Carrefour focused